diff --git a/image-recipe/build-auto-installer-iso.sh b/image-recipe/build-auto-installer-iso.sh
index bf9675fa..c12a3dd1 100755
--- a/image-recipe/build-auto-installer-iso.sh
+++ b/image-recipe/build-auto-installer-iso.sh
@@ -1222,8 +1222,12 @@ fi
 
 # Include AIUI web app (Claude chat interface)
 AIUI_INCLUDED=0
-# Search multiple locations for a pre-built AIUI app
+# Search multiple locations for a pre-built AIUI app.
+# demo/aiui is the canonical AIUI bundle checked into the repo and is
+# tried first so ISO builds on a fresh clone work without needing any
+# external AIUI checkout.
 for AIUI_DIR in \
+    "$SCRIPT_DIR/../demo/aiui" \
     "$SCRIPT_DIR/../../AIUI/packages/app/dist" \
     "$HOME/AIUI/packages/app/dist" \
     "/home/archipelago/AIUI/packages/app/dist" \
@@ -1246,7 +1250,7 @@ done
 if [ "$AIUI_INCLUDED" = "0" ]; then
     echo "   ⚠️  AIUI not found — build it first:"
     echo "      cd ~/AIUI/packages/app && VITE_BASE_PATH=/aiui/ npx vite build"
-    echo "   Searched: ~/AIUI, /home/archipelago/AIUI, /opt/archipelago/web-ui/aiui"
+    echo "   Searched: demo/aiui, ~/AIUI, /home/archipelago/AIUI, /opt/archipelago/web-ui/aiui"
 fi
 
 # Copy app manifests
diff --git a/scripts/self-update.sh b/scripts/self-update.sh
index 4261cd0e..f203a6b5 100755
--- a/scripts/self-update.sh
+++ b/scripts/self-update.sh
@@ -157,12 +157,23 @@ else
     exit 1
 fi
 
-# Install frontend (preserve aiui and claude-login.html)
+# Install frontend (always ship fresh AIUI from demo/aiui; preserve claude-login.html)
 BUILT_WEB="$REPO_DIR/web/dist/neode-ui"
 if [ -d "$BUILT_WEB" ]; then
-    # Sync new files, preserving aiui/ and claude-login.html
+    # Bake AIUI into the built tree so rsync --delete does not wipe it.
+    # demo/aiui is the canonical AIUI bundle checked into the repo; copying
+    # it here means every self-update ships a matching AIUI version instead
+    # of preserving whatever stale copy happened to be on disk (which is
+    # empty on nodes where an earlier ad-hoc deploy blew it away).
+    if [ -d "$REPO_DIR/demo/aiui" ] && [ -f "$REPO_DIR/demo/aiui/index.html" ]; then
+        log "Staging AIUI bundle from demo/aiui into frontend dist..."
+        rm -rf "$BUILT_WEB/aiui"
+        cp -r "$REPO_DIR/demo/aiui" "$BUILT_WEB/aiui"
+    else
+        warn "demo/aiui not found in repo; existing /opt/archipelago/web-ui/aiui will be wiped by rsync --delete"
+    fi
+    # Sync new files, preserving claude-login.html (per-node admin bookmark)
     sudo rsync -a --delete \
-        --exclude 'aiui' \
         --exclude 'claude-login.html' \
         "$BUILT_WEB/" "$INSTALL_WEB/"
     ok "Frontend installed"